Maybe, if I unlocked it at the right moment, it would save my life, too. I just needed to be strong and patient.

My strength, however, waned miserably over the next few days.

Each day, at eight bells of the morning watch, Madwulf emerged from the lower decks. “Unlock the compass, lass.”

“I’m trying.”

Standing calmly before me, he signaled to his brutes and watched coldly as the plank of wood damaged another part of my body. It struck my ribs on the second day, my shoulder on the third. By the fourth morning, the pain was so tremendous I hadn’t slept.

I couldn’t stop shaking. Couldn’t stop whimpering. Couldn’t eat or breathe or focus on anything beyond the terrible, constant agony that decimated every muscle and bone.

My leg had swollen into a contusion of black and blue damage from hip to knee. Though I couldn’t stand on it, it was the least of my tribulation.

The ladder of bones beneath my left breast had broken in several places. I was certain of it, for every breath made me cry out and wheeze. And my arm refused to respond. It wouldn’t lift or move in any way. Dislocated shoulder? Possibly worse.

My teeth rattled endlessly, my nerves and sinews ceaselessly twitching and convulsing. The pain governed me, overtaking my motor functions, and the dread was more than I could bear. Could I withstand another blow from that plank?

Adding to the misery, the moon and stars had abandoned their watch over me. Clouds crowded the sky, black and brooding, rolling alongside Blitz as if set on the same course.

Where were we headed? The compass said south. The direction of the bird island. But after four days, we should have already arrived. I feared we’d gone too far east and overshot the destination. Jade’s destination, if all had gone as I hoped.

Madwulf never mentioned a route, and the crew didn’t speak of it.

Throughout the voyage, they lived loudly and boisterously, soaring with high spirits on board Ashley’s ship. Heavy drinking ran rampant day and night. The supply of farm animals dwindled as they gorged on freshly slaughtered meat. Sometimes, they tossed raw scraps to me, laughing and keeping their distance as if I were the feral dog.

As if.

As a result of their excessive drinking, eating, and overall misbehavior, they failed to do much of anything for the better part of a week. Madwulf didn’t partake in the merriment. He didn’t discourage it, either. Remaining below deck, he presumably indulged in the luxuries of the private quarters and slept in the bed I’d shared with Ashley.